The Forrest City times., 1887-12-31

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 BnoosLrr, \ Y-serTics sunday at the Brooklyn Tabernacle were jubilant. Profs Browne and Ali, with organ and cornet, were unusually powerful, and hrs. Rice-knox sang three solos. Tho thousands Of people who packed the church and all it's approaches, seemed 10 join in the grcs; chorus
 He shsii reign from pole to poi.
 Wish ihmitshls sway:
 He shall reign. when. like scroll
 YoHaer heavens have passed away.
 Rev T. Dewitt Ismagc n D. took AS the subject Of his sermon, ''1hc Barn and It's Sur roundingsH His text was taken from
 The shepherds said one t5 another, let US now go evso unto sethese- and the thing which has come so psss.-lLuke Ii, l5.
 Dr Talmsge said
 One thousand years Of the worlds existence rollcl painfully and wearily along, and no Christ. Two thousand years and no Christ Three thousand years. and no Christ. Four thousand yesrs, and ne Christ. "Gise us Christ" had cried Assyrisn and Persian and Cisidean and Egyptian civilizations, but the lips Of the earth and the lips Of the sky made no answer. The world hrd already beer sfiiuent Of gcnias. Among poets had sppesrea Homer and Thsspls and Anstophsnes and sophocles and Euripdes and Alexis d.schylus, yet no Christ to be the most poetic figure of the oenturies. Among historians had appeared Herodotus and Xsnopbon and Thusytsdes, but DO Christ from whom all history was to date backward and for ward-B. C, aad A D. Among eonquerors Csnllss and sod hanliGs aud Rsgulus and xsnurPus anu Hannibal and scipio and Pom sey and Crrar, yet no Christ who was to be con sseFor Of earth and heaven.
 But tne slow century and the slow year and the slow moath and the siSsr hour at last ar r,yed. The world had had maths or concerts in tho morning and yespers or concerts in She evening, but now ii is te have a concert at mid oght. The black window shutters of De- eember night were thrown open, and some of the best singers Of the world where they all sing stood there. and putting back the drspery of cioud chanted a peace anthem, until all the echoes of hill and valley applauded and encored ths haiel ujah chorus.
 At last the world has Christ, and just the Christ 1t needs. Come, let us go into that Christi mas scene as though we had never before wor- shipped at the manager. Here is a Madonna werth looking at l wonder not that the most frequent name in all lands and in all Christian centuries is Mary And there are Marys in palaces and hsrys in cabins, and though Ger man ard French and Italian and Spanish and English pronounce it differently, they are all nsmesakes of the one whom we find on a bed Of straw with her srsle face against the soft check of Christ in the night of the nativity. All the great painters have tried on canvass to present Mary and her olilI, and the incidents of that most famous night of the worlds history Raphael in three different masterpieces cele- brated them. Iintoret and Guirlandjo sur passed them selves in the Alteration of ths Msgi Corregio needed to do nothing more than his Madonna to become immortal The Madonna Of the Lilly. by Leonardo da yinci, will kindle the admiration of all ages. Murillo never won greater triumph by his pencil than his presenta- ton of the Holy Family. But all the galleries of Dresden are forgotten when l think of the small room of that gallery containing the sistine Madonna Yet all of them are copies of St Matthew's Madonna, and Luke's Madonna, the inspired Madonna of the Old Book, which he had put into hands when we were infants and that we hope to have under our heads when we die.
 THE BRUTE CREATION.
 Behold, in the first place, that on the first night of Christ's life God honored the brute creation. You can not get into that Bethlehem barn without going past the camels, the mules the dogs the oxen. The brutes Of the stable heard the first cry of the infant Lord. Some of the cid painters represent the oxen and camels kneeliBg that night before the newborn bate And well might they kneel. Have you ever
 
 alleviate the suferngs of the brute creation? Was it not appropriate that he should during the first few days and nights of his life on earth be surrouneed by the dumb beasts whose moan and phaint and believing have for ages been a prayer to God for the srresting of their torturer and the fighting of their wrongs9 It did not merely "happen SOL that the unntelligcnt creatures of Crod should have been that night in close neighSorhood Not kennel in all the centuries, not birds nest. not a worn-out horse on towpath not herd freezing in the poorly built COW pen, not & freight car in summer time bringing the beeyes to marAot without water through thousand miles Of agony, not & surgeons 8 room witnessing the struggles of fox, rabbit, or pigeon dog in the horrors of yiviseetion but has a interest in the fact that Christ WAS born in stable surrounded by brutes. He remembers that night and the prayer he heard in their pitiful Iasan he will answer in the punishment of those who naltreat the dumb brutes They surely have as much right in this world AS we have.
 In the first chapter of Genesis you may see that they were placed on the earth before man vas-the fsh and fowl the fifth day, and the quadruped the morning or tine sixth day, and man not until the afternoon of that day. The whale, the eagle, the lion, and all the lesser creatures of thoir kind were predecessors of the human family. They have the world by right Of possession. They have also paid rent for the piaces they occupied. What an army of defense all over the land are the faithful watch dogs And who can tell what the world owes to horses, and camel and OK for transportationg And robin and lark have by the eantatas with which they have filled orchards and forests, more than paid fNf lht itN lrdinh they nave iicktu up TOT tftG susteuance. When you abuse any creature O God you strike its creator and you insult the Christ who, thought he might have been wei cOmcd into life by princes, and taken his trst infantile slumber amid Tyrian plush and cano- pied touches, and ripping waters from royal scqueducts dripping into basins Of ivory and pearl chose to be born level with e COW 6 horn, or a camel's hoof, or a dogs nostril, that he might be the aleyation of brutal suffering as well ss the redeemer of man.
 Standing then, as imagine now do, in that RHtbiplpIu n On ne side and the speeches. creature of God on the other, cry, Look ont how you strike the rowel from that bleeding mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is foo small for food. Forget not t0 put water into the cage of that canary Throw out in the winters inclemency. Arrest that man who is making that one horse draw 6 load heavy enough Tor three Rush m upon that scene where boys are torturng eat or transh king butterfly or grasshopper. Drive not of that old robin, for her nest is mothers cradle and under her wings there may be three or four prima donnas Of the sky in training. And in your families and in your schools teach the com ing generation more mercy than the present generation has ever shown, and in this marvel ous Bible picture of the nativity, while you point out to them the angel show them also the camel, and while they hear tue celestial chant let them also hear the COW s moan No more did Christ show interest in the botanic world than when be said, Consider the lilies, ' than he showed sympathy for the ornithologicaI when he sad, f' BcdOld the toWls Ot the air. - and the quadrupedal world when he allowed himself to be called in one place aIion and in another place . lamb Meanwhile, may the Christ ofthe Beth lehem cattle-pen have mercy the suffering stock yards that are preparing diseased and fevered meat Tor our American households.
 1nEB BIRTH OF cHmsr.
 Behold also in this Bible scene how on that Christmas night God honored childhood. Christ might have made his first visit to our world in cloud, as he will descend his next visit in cloud. In what chariot Of iliumlnod vapor he might have rolled down the sky. escorted by mounted cavalry, with lightning of drawn sword. Elijah had a carriage fire to take him up, why not Jesus a carra age of fire to fetch him down2 Or over the arched bridge of a rainbow the Lord might have descended. Or Christ might have had his mortality built up on eaTth out of the dust of garden, as Adam. in full manhood at the start, without the intro ductory fcchleness of infancy No. no. Child hood was to be honored by that advent He must have a child's light limbs, and a child's S dimpled hand. and chiid's beaming eye, and a childs naNen hair and oaby hood was to be honored for all time to come, and cradle was to mean more than grave Mighty GOdl May the reflection of that one child's face be seen in al tOfautila Enpugh have those faf